James Gurney

This weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

CG Art

Contact

or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

Permissions

All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

Over the last few years, three different art video companies have asked to film my working methods, but I turned them all down because I wanted to learn how to do it myself. That way, I felt I could deliver a better result to you.

That's why it took a while to produce this and bring it to market. I had to learn a lot first. I wanted to shoot detailed video coverage of the entire process, not just one or two days of it, and I knew that an outside team couldn't do that if they just dropped into the studio for a short period of time.

What's in the Video

The video follows the making of these two paintings from start to finish over a two month period from assignment to delivery. It covers the research, thumbnails, maquettes, line drawing, color planning, priming, and the final oil painting.

I know not everyone is into dinosaurs, but if you paint any kind of imaginative realism, I think you'll find the method helpful. I have more videos in the pipeline about plein-air painting in watercolor and casein, which I'll tell you more about later.

"How I Paint Dinosaurs" runs about 53 minutes, short enough to watch multiple times, but long enough to cover everything. I tried to apply everything I learned from your 81 comments to my post asking you what you like (and don't like) in an art video.

Reviews

“Any artist who has been treated to James Gurney’s previous books will be delighted with his newest offering, How I Paint Dinosaurs, an over-the-shoulder look at how this remarkable dinosaur artist achieves not only realism but a true sense of drama in portraying these animals for National Geographic Magazine and others. Gurney not only knows dinosaurs but is a master painter of light and shadow, and he shares his techniques in an easily understandable and informal way. I learned much from watching this.”
---Mark Hallett, paleoartist

“What do Leonardo Da Vinci, Charles R. Knight, and Jim Gurney have in common? True art, texture, and no photo manipulation software. Who needs a time machine to see life in the Mesozoic? Just let Jim paint it for you. Here is how True Magic is done. Now it is your turn to learn to make magic.”
—Michael K. Brett-Surman, PhD., co-editor of The Complete Dinosaur (Life of the Past)

How to Order

The DVD is currently available at Kunaki.com, where you can order directly and have it shipped to you. (International customers, please remember, it's region-encoded NTSC for U.S.A and Canada.)

You can also preorder the DVD from Amazon.com. I just set up the page there, and they'll have copies soon.

At Gumroad where you can download a video file right now. (Edit: I would like to sincerely thank all of you who have added a little extra to your Gumroad payment. I really appreciate it!)

Hi James, I think you really need to find a way to allow people to pay with Paypal. It's about the most secure way for people to pay for goods on the internet. I'm weary of entering my debit/credit card numbers period. I really want to purchase the download, but need to use Paypal.Cheers!

Carol, Like all DVDs released here, it's a Region 1 Encoded NTSC format, which means it will only play in US, Canada, Bermuda, and U.S. territories, unless you have special equipment for playing Region 1 DVDs. Maybe someone else from another country can explain it better.

Dan, wow, thank you. That means so much coming from you.

Anatoly, I wanted to release the DVD and download together so that people have a real choice.

Thanks, Chris, I use Paypal a lot, too. I'll try to figure out how to offer the Paypal option. Anyone have any ideas?

Well, I've seen a lot of folks use shopify.com, but they charge a monthly rate vs. gumroad which is a higher % on every transaction. Depending on how many videos you sell using a service with a monthly fee could be cheaper. It's just one example. You could also get on the folks at gumroad to get their paypal act together :)

As for paypal and german customers. I remember paypal not working either for my premium dropbox account for some reason noone could really clarify. But they said, it's a problem only connected to german accounts which was really strange. So, better ask before...

Also, is there any chance to have the DVDs released coded for europe as well, when offering it via amazon or something?

Purchased the download version.Great video. Love all the behind the scenes in studio footage. Enjoyed watching your thoughts and design process to creating the paintings.Very pleased with with overall quality and content. James always makes it fun and entertaining while learning from a master.I will definitely recommend this and I am already looking forward to your future video releases.Rob K.MichiganPainter

I have a question regarding the comment that you do not use photo manipulation software.

I assume that, technically, this is will be false. I'm sure you have Photoshop, allowing you to resize, crop and brighten a photograph of your painting.

But to what extend do you allow yourself to manipulate a raw photograph of your paintings?

Will you increase color saturation? Change overall color 'temperature'?Darken the sky a little bit?Even remove a figure in the background to simplify a composition?Add some extra digital paint here or there to touch-up some area's?

The fact that you like your book's paintings to travel as an exhibition suggests that little is altered in the digital 'dark room'.

ROTM81: Not sure on that one, just because we don't have staff here, and it gets time consuming. I will sell DVDs at public appearances and signing events.

RobNonStop, thanks for explaining that. I'll try to learn how to make both the DVDs and the download payments more accessible to European customers. Thank you for offering to help people pay without using a credit card!

Thanks Dus Nes, I'll look into that.

Erik, fair question. The quote you refer to was from the paleontologist, and I think he was referring to the common practice of doing dinosaur art by digitally combining photo sources and 3D sources and such. My method is rather old school by comparison, but I personally have nothing against any tools, as long as they get good results.

To answer the core of your question, yes, I do use Photoshop for resizing, cropping, and color correction, with the intent of getting the image to look as much like the original when it appears in print or on a screen. And I must add that I still have a lot to learn in this category.

As a general thing, I don't use Photoshop or any other software to continue working on a piece, or change it appreciably from the original, partly because I want the public expression to always match the physical original.

Bought the digital download the first thing in the morning, will watch it after my workday (and many times after that, I'm sure). Also I'd like to join other Russian fans, who suffer from an extremely nasty national customs/postal service combination regarding physical purchases from abroad, with thanks for making a download available!

Hey James I see that people are having problems and want to use paypal. So I looked it up and paypal offers a service to sell digital goods from your website. Here's the link. https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/digital-goods

You might want to check out a few youtube videos to get familiar with how to embed it on your website.

To anyone who wants to know more about using Photoshop to reproduce images in print correctly, I recommend Deke McClelland’s videos on Sharpening, a function which improves with almost every new version of Ps. I think he currently distributes his videos through Lynda.com.

This was so great to watch before trying to finish up a few paintings today.Thank you James! I started using my palette knife again today and will be trying some of the other tips and methods. The 2 paintings you featured are just amazing. I'm looking forward to future installments!

Been a fan for a long time and bought the digital version today. What a delightful "over the shoulder" peek into your studio and your process for developing a painting. I love the warm, personal tone, the pacing, the info, and...well, everything...not to mention the fantastic art that you produce. It was neat seeing how you make your own tools and welcome your client in the studio.

Also, Mr. Kooks is adorable! His cameos were so charming. How do you keep him from pooping all over or chewing up everything? I have been wanting a bird companion in my studio for some time now but those issues concern me.

Anyway, thanks so much for this excellent instructional vid--even as someone who works exclusively in watercolor, I learned a lot and will no doubt watch it over and over!

I thought the digital download was great too and very much enjoyed seeing you at work in your studio. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience in this way.

If you are taking requests or feedback for future videos, one thing I would like to see would be an area of the painting completed in real time from beginning to finish. It could be a small area, such as a dinosaur's head. I think this would be very useful as bringing a painting to a finish is imo one of the more difficult aspects of the process.

Thanks for taking the time to produce them.I particularly enjoyed the maquette aspects. Seeing all your teachings articulated was very instructing.

I saw that you used Alazarin Crimson in the underpainting of the second video. I've heard that it's not very lightfast, or has this change in newer tubes? I'm asking because I have a tube for a reduced palette and I'm hesitating to use it.

Concerning fixative, have you tried spectrafix? It's a casein/alcool fixative that does not produces bad fumes.

Really top class video James, very thorough and concise - just what I want out of a tutorial vid :) so many 'ofcourse!' moments while watching it, thankyou for covering every step - can't wait to watch again... and again...

Great video James! Congratulations on your first (?) major video release. It's a great success. I bought the download just yesterday.

A note to anyone considering the purchase: If you're not particularly a "dinosaur person" don't be put off. Virtually all of the information translates to all subject matter. Even for those of you who have painted for years, there's much to be learned by looking over James' shoulder. You won't regret the purchase!

Exellent video! Very concise.Also the structure of the tutorial and the narrative flow was spot on.As someone have said in some comments above it really invite to re watch. Thanks a lot for adding the Paypal option James.

Thanks for the Paypal option, I snatched a copy. Great watch, I really appreciated seeing all the research that goes into a painting. I'm almost always too lazy for setting up maquettes and I'm sure my fantasy paintings suffer for it. You're definitely an inspiration, Mr. Gurney.

Hi, Jason,The brush tutorial is fairly short--3 minutes--but a lot packed in it.If you send me the print with a stamped self-addressed envelope, I'd be happy to sign it and send it back to you. My address is on the bottom left of the blog.